Lateral melt variations induce shift in Io’s peak tidal heating
Abstract The innermost Galilean moon, Io, exhibits widespread tidally-driven volcanism. Monitoring of its volcanoes has revealed that they are not homogeneously distributed across its surface: volcanic activity is higher at low latitudes and peaks east of the sub- and anti-Jovian points. Dissipation...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62059-4 |
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| _version_ | 1849764288335446016 |
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| author | Allard Veenstra Marc Rovira-Navarro Teresa Steinke Ashley Gerard Davies Wouter van der Wal |
| author_facet | Allard Veenstra Marc Rovira-Navarro Teresa Steinke Ashley Gerard Davies Wouter van der Wal |
| author_sort | Allard Veenstra |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The innermost Galilean moon, Io, exhibits widespread tidally-driven volcanism. Monitoring of its volcanoes has revealed that they are not homogeneously distributed across its surface: volcanic activity is higher at low latitudes and peaks east of the sub- and anti-Jovian points. Dissipation in a radially symmetric solid body cannot explain the observed longitudinal shift but dissipation in a magma ocean can. However, recent observations show that Io does not have one. Here, we demonstrate that a longitudinal shift in the heating pattern naturally arises from the feedback between tidal heating and melt production. The feedback between tidal dissipation and interior properties that results in interiors that deviate from radial symmetry is expected to drive the interior evolution of other tidally-active worlds, including icy moons such as Europa and Enceladus and exo-planets/moons with high eccentricity or obliquity. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-338b3f38536b40bfade3302196ecd12c |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-338b3f38536b40bfade3302196ecd12c2025-08-20T03:05:10ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-07-011611910.1038/s41467-025-62059-4Lateral melt variations induce shift in Io’s peak tidal heatingAllard Veenstra0Marc Rovira-Navarro1Teresa Steinke2Ashley Gerard Davies3Wouter van der Wal4Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU DelftFaculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU DelftFaculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU DelftJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of TechnologyFaculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU DelftAbstract The innermost Galilean moon, Io, exhibits widespread tidally-driven volcanism. Monitoring of its volcanoes has revealed that they are not homogeneously distributed across its surface: volcanic activity is higher at low latitudes and peaks east of the sub- and anti-Jovian points. Dissipation in a radially symmetric solid body cannot explain the observed longitudinal shift but dissipation in a magma ocean can. However, recent observations show that Io does not have one. Here, we demonstrate that a longitudinal shift in the heating pattern naturally arises from the feedback between tidal heating and melt production. The feedback between tidal dissipation and interior properties that results in interiors that deviate from radial symmetry is expected to drive the interior evolution of other tidally-active worlds, including icy moons such as Europa and Enceladus and exo-planets/moons with high eccentricity or obliquity.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62059-4 |
| spellingShingle | Allard Veenstra Marc Rovira-Navarro Teresa Steinke Ashley Gerard Davies Wouter van der Wal Lateral melt variations induce shift in Io’s peak tidal heating Nature Communications |
| title | Lateral melt variations induce shift in Io’s peak tidal heating |
| title_full | Lateral melt variations induce shift in Io’s peak tidal heating |
| title_fullStr | Lateral melt variations induce shift in Io’s peak tidal heating |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lateral melt variations induce shift in Io’s peak tidal heating |
| title_short | Lateral melt variations induce shift in Io’s peak tidal heating |
| title_sort | lateral melt variations induce shift in io s peak tidal heating |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62059-4 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT allardveenstra lateralmeltvariationsinduceshiftiniospeaktidalheating AT marcroviranavarro lateralmeltvariationsinduceshiftiniospeaktidalheating AT teresasteinke lateralmeltvariationsinduceshiftiniospeaktidalheating AT ashleygerarddavies lateralmeltvariationsinduceshiftiniospeaktidalheating AT woutervanderwal lateralmeltvariationsinduceshiftiniospeaktidalheating |